10 Sustainable Outdoor Design Trends For 2015

Sustainable outdoor design looks to become one of the hottest outdoor design trends for 2015, considering its skyrocketing popularity in 2014.

“Sustainable design is definitely moving into the mainstream now,” says Ashley Allen, an outdoor green designer with Outdoor Homescapes of Houston. “Before, it was just considered a tree-hugger thing – but now people are realizing it can save them time and money, too.”

Sustainable and low-maintenance design both ranked highly as important features, for instance, in the 2014 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends Survey by the American Society of Landscape Architects. Among the sustainable design elements rated by survey respondents as “popular or somewhat popular”:

• Native or adapted drought-tolerant plants (88 percent)• Drip/water-efficient irrigation (84.5 percent)• Permeable paving (78.9 percent)• Reduced lawn (72.6 percent)• Recycled materials (65.1 percent)• Rainwater/”grey water” harvesting (60.6 percent)• Compost bins (51.2 percent)• Solar-powered lights (42.7 percent)• Geothermal-heated pools (27.2 percent)

To this list, Allen adds one more:• Renewable materials

“One really popular renewable resource for the outdoors is outdoor cork flooring,” says Allen, “since it’s water- and rot-resistant, repels bugs, absorbs outdoor noise and is softer on the feet - and on breakables that may fall on it!” Cork is renewable, explains Allen, because it grows back after being harvested from the core of the cork oak tree.

Bamboo is another popular renewable resources being used in Houston outdoor living spaces – and nationwide - adds Allen: “It’s being used for flooring, decks, fencing, cabinets, furniture and more.”

Allen can certainly see why native or adapted drought-tolerant plants top the ASLA survey: She’s also seen a soaring demand for xeriscaping (the use of plants requiring little or no water) in her projects.

“All throughout Houston, people are tearing down older houses to make way for newer ones, since land is at a premium and sometimes it costs less to tear down an existing structure,” she says. “Well, you can go to these houses, pull those materials and use them in new ways instead of sending them to the landfill and using up more resources.”

For instance, wood from homes can be used for building and construction. For outdoor living space design projects, they can be used for pergolas and arbors. For a commercial project she’s working on – a restaurant with an outdoor beer garden – they’re being used to construct an artsy interior wall.

Glass is another popular material that’s reclaimed or recycled. “They break all the glass and use it to make backsplashes and countertops,” says Allen.

To Number 8 – “Solar-powered lighting” – Allen would add LED lights and sensor lights. LED lights not only provide greater output with less energy, they also don’t emit heat and are therefore a safer choice – especially for children who may touch the bulbs or for the house itself while the owner is on vacation.

Even if you’re not ready for solar panels or a rooftop garden, Allen says you can go a long way toward increasing the eco-friendliness of your outdoor design project by using companies and manufacturers who

have sustainability policies. Restoration Hardware, for instance, uses sustainably forested paper for its catalogs and contracts with UPS to provide “carbon-neutral” shipping. (This means UPS invests in projects on Restoration Hardware’s behalf that offset environmental damage caused by CO2 emissions from its deliveries.

“You may not think it’s much, but it’s a start,” says Allen.

More information on sustainable outdoor design can be found on Outdoor Homescapes of Houston’s website, at www.outdoorhomescapes.com